Royal Albert Bridge

It was in 1846 that the bill to take the railway into Cornwall finally passed through both houses of Parliament and then received its Royal Assent. Work on building a bridge to take the railway across the Tamar began soon afterwards but it was suspended for three years from 1849 because of financial difficulties.

Within a year of the work recommencing the Prince Consort, Prince Albert, gave permission for his name to be used for the bridge and six years later, when the work was eventually completed, he personally presided over the opening ceremony. That was 2 May 1859 and the following year the Devonport Inn (formerly the Dock Inn) immediately below the Bridge on the Devon side, was renamed the Royal Albert Bridge Inn.

There can be little doubt however that the bridge is more popularly known as the Brunel Bridge in honour of the celebrated Railway and Civil Engineer who designed the innovative structure and who died just a few months after the bridge had been completed.